Soda Straw Rocket Science is an aerospace program to demonstrate the physics of flight using a small air rocket. Up to sixteen projects introduce students
and their teachers to the aerospace environment - including the design, build, and fly process; teamwork; and competition.

The initial idea to design, build, and fly a small air rocket first came
to me several years ago as an activity for my grandchildren,
who at that time were ages 4 and 7.We built the rocket launcher from pipe fittings,
an air pressure gauge, a gas valve, an air supply hose,
and a water filter tank.The rockets were constructed from soda straws, ear plugs, and adhesive filing tabs.My grandchildren found that launching their rockets
was not only fun, but also interesting to try different launch angles, launch pressures, and rocket designs.After that, word got around and I was
asked to participate in local school classroom, Cub Scout, and science camp programs.Small air rockets are particularly suitable as aerospace
outreach - the process of designing, building, and flying
the air rockets is a good introduction to the aerospace environment.

As an aerospace outreach program for students and their teachers,
the program introduces them to an aerospace environment.Attributes include:

•Introduces the design, build, and fly process, a fundamental process
of aerospace systems development

•Incorporates teamwork, an essential part of aerospace systems development

•Illustrates the competitive nature of aerospace systems

•Is exciting and fun - capturing interest from kindergarten students
to adults

Other potential alternatives to using small air rockets
include Estes-type hot exhaust rockets and water rockets.The Estes-type rocket is more spectacular - with fire, smoke, noise,
and higher performance.However, it can only be launched outside the classroom in a large space to be safe.Another disadvantage is the student has less insight
into the physics of the rocket.A water rocket is also spectacular and is great
fun to launch.However,
it is messy and also has less insight into the physics of the rocket.The small
air rocket of this program is safe, clean, and can be launched
indoor if necessary.The flight range can be directly controlled by the chamber pressure, launch angle, and rocket design.Students are introduced to the experimental
and theoretical physics of thrust, total impulse, boost velocity, drag, vertical impact velocity, and flight trajectory.These are easily predicted
with simple physics equations and can be easily confirmed
with ground/flight test data.For these reasons, a soda straw air rocket was
selected.

The aerospace outreach program for the soda straw rocket
has been conducted with grades K-12+ students.As a pre-schoolstudent program, it is one hour activity, which can be held either entirely in the classroom
or partly inside/partly outside theclassroom.It begins with a ten minute presentation of six videos
of rockets, ranging from the large Saturn
V moon rocket to thesmall soda straw rocket, followed by questions.Next the students are shown how to
build a soda straw rocket.It usually takesabout twenty minutes for them to build their rockets.During the last twenty minutes they shoot off their rockets.

The elementary school program may be a slightly longer (e.g.,
11/2 hour) activity, similar to the pre-school activity.The presentation includes the history of rockets, including
rockets developed by the early Chinese,
Dr. Goddard, Dr. von Braun, and Mr. Korolev.

For middle school science camp, the program may be expandedto three hours, with one hour each day.The first day may include apresentation and
construction of launchers/test stands.The thirty minutepresentation addresses the history of
rockets, videos, Galileo's gravityhypothesis, Newton’s 2nd law, designparameters, the scientific method, how to build a
soda straw rocket, how to build a launcher/test
stand, and how to conducttests.Following questions on the
presentation the students may build
launchers/test stands.The total cost of materials for alauncher, wind tunnel test stand, and a thrust test stand
is about $100.Assembly of the launcher/test stands requires that the students pay attention to detail, to build
equipment with minimal pressure leaks.

In the second day, the middle school students may build their soda straw rockets,
conduct static thrust tests, and conduct wind
tunnel tests.Thestudents may conduct static thrust tests
by measuring the force (~ 1 pound) inrestraining a pressurized rocket.A pressure regulator is included
in the static thrust tests toprovide nearly constant thrust during blow down.Following static
thrust tests, thestudents may conduct
wind tunnel tests in a ¾ inch vertical exit pipe.Eachsoda
straw rocket is suspended nose down
into a vertical pipe and the gaugepressure is noted when the soda straw rocket first rises from the pipe (drag =weight).This provides an estimate of the flight dynamic pressure and drag coefficient.If
funds are available, a low cost, kid-friendly,
rugged digital moviecamera is useful for data analysis.

The third day may begin with a demonstration of the flight trajectories of different
types of rockets (e.g., rockets with
canards,wings, different size tails).The students
then conduct flight tests of their rockets
to determine themaximum range.Again, a digital movie camera
is useful, but not required,for flight data analysis.Following flight tests and if additional
time is available, the students may return to the classroom to perform calculations of predictedthrust, dynamic pressure, and drag coefficient.Students
can alsocompare predicted results with the test data and present posters of their results.Prizes may be awarded to the students based on the quality of their presentations and theflight performance
of their rockets.

In summary, a design, build, and fly program based on a small air rocket is
a cost effective approach to aerospace
outreach.As an aerospaceoutreach program to students
and their teachers, it is educational,
fun, safe, and low cost.